An eleventh reserve for large ungulates is being created near the border with Poland
An eleventh reserve for large ungulates in central Europe, in the formation of which the conservation organisation European Wildlife took part, is being established in these days near the town of Krnov, not far from the border of the Czech Republic with Poland. Two bred-back aurochs, which will be joined by three wild horses during January 2023, are currently found in the pasture reserve.
Their mission in Krnov is to graze on the area of a former military site, which is a significant landscape element under extraordinary protection. The grazing of large ungulates is to ensure that the local protected plants and animals such as the fringed pink, several species of orchids, the white admiral butterfly and the great crested newt amphibian are conserved for the future. “The entire site was biologically surveyed in detail in 2020. As regards botany, the presence of 9 specially protected species and 23 species on the Red List was recorded. The monitoring revealed a total of 49 species of diurnal butterflies and 12 species of bumblebees, including cuckoo bumblebees,” Adrian Czernik from the Ekotona company, which provided the biological monitoring, described the representation of some groups of organisms.
The pasture reserve aims to stop the degradation of valuable communities and protected species due to spontaneous succession and the spread of invasive and expansive plant species. This will be ensured mainly by grazing, which is economically more advantageous than would be the case with scything or cutting out stretches of land.
The aurochs and wild horses were provided free of charge for the site by the conservation organisation European Wildlife. “Together with conservation organisations, towns/cities and regions are among the main initiators of the foundation of pasture reserves. The grazing of large ungulates brings the best available care of the landscape and, at the same time, it is financially cheaper than scything or grazing of domestic animals,” said Dalibor Dostal, Director of the conservation organisation European Wildlife.
